Red's Little Girl
by Forever-Tangled
Summary: Short one-shot. After a mission gone wrong, Red finds himself at Lizzie's side in the hospital, waiting for her to wake up, and he ends up reminiscing back to when she was four months old. Terrible at summaries. Rated K . Reddington as Lizzie's father. Though fire, lies, and years separated them, she'll always be his little girl.


Raymond Reddington gazed at the girl - Elizabeth Keen. Cocking his head to the side, he wondered if she'd ever find out his deepest, and yet most wonderful, secret. She was his daughter. He was sitting beside her hospital bed, and had spent the past three hours with his head in his hands, willing her to be okay. It had been a mission gone wrong. She'd been tracking a serial killer - Number 394 of the blacklist; "The Betelgeuse" -, posed as a target, and had gotten too deep in the cover. She'd nearly ended up the next victim. But here she was, bruised, unconscious, and with bullet wounds to her shoulder and calf. A sharp arrow had buried itself directly beside an important artery. He wasn't even planning Number 394's demise right now, he was just watching his daughter. Humming a long-lost lullaby's tune, he wondered when she'd wake. Soon, she did. She caught his gaze and held it with her cool blue eyes, looking at him with confusion and a hint of mistrust as she wondered why he was there, and trying to decipher through the fog of anesthetic what he was saying or humming. And just like that, his mind swerved back decades. 

He held the crying bundle, an unsure man with a four-month-old daughter in his arms. She was the most precious and most frustrating thing he'd ever laid eyes on. Lizzie kept her mother up most of the night, and when she wasn't up with the young thing, he was. He bounced her gently in his arms, trying to soothe her.  
"Shh, Lizzie-girl. You finished your bottle, and we can't wake your mother. What do you want me to do?" his deep, gravelly voice sometimes scared children. This time, though, he realized something: Lizzie paused her whimpers, sniffling and staring at him pensively with pale eyes. But when he stopped speaking, she slowly started to cry once more. Testing this theory out, he rummaged for a lullaby to sing. "_Hush little baby, don't say a word, papa's gonna buy you a mockingbird. And if that mockingbird don't sing, papa's gonna buy you a diamond ring..."_ so on and so forth his voice rumbled, and Lizzie stared at his mouth. Soon, though, she was surprisingly lulled by his singing, and allowed her heavy eyelids to droop closed. As she lay nestled in his arms, he realized that this was what life was about. It was all about the dirty diapers, the slobbery-mouthed smiles and quiet giggles. Staying up all night with a fussy baby. Comforting her mother when she panics because their baby's growing up too fast and she's only four months old. Singing lullabies and cuddling until wide, bright eyes drifted shut. Watching her mother cradle her daughter for the first time; the awe passing over both of their faces. He didn't want anything more than this precious little girl and the woman who wore a wedding band that corresponded with his. Speaking of which, her form appeared at the door frame.  
"Is she asleep?" she asked quietly, her light blue eyes all he could see in the early morning.  
"Finally, yes. Why are you awake?" he asked, tugging his thoughts to reality. He eased the baby into her cradle, tucking a blanket over her and setting a stuffed bunny next to her.  
"Heard you singing," she said, probably smiling. "Is she a fan?"  
His mouth twitched into a crooked grin. "Maybe," he said vaguely, taking her hand to tug her away from the door so he could ease it shut. "She's something else."  
"Don't I know it, Ray," the woman slipped her arms around him and leaned up against him for a moment. "She's spunky, but perfect."  
If he would've known that his dreams would be engulfed in flames just a few short years later, he would've done more.

Reddington blinked, pushing back the memory. Elizabeth probably wanted an explanation. "You were on a mission-"  
"I know," she said, clearing her rough throat and swallowing as she thought. "But...that song you were humming. I've never heard you hum before, but it sounded so..familiar."  
Reddington's heart threatened to batter out of his chest, desperately hoping he wouldn't have to explain. A nurse started to approach the bed, so he pounced on this opportunity. "You have quite a few people waiting to see you, Lizzie. I'll go notify them that you're awake."  
She nodded, staring after him drearily as a lullaby haunted her mind. More likely than not, it was just this fogginess she was still fighting off.


End file.
